Strengthen Donor Loyalty With an Email Welcome Series
(includes an outline for your series!)
Key takeaway:
An automated email welcome series is a low-effort high-payoff strategy for your nonprofit.
Imagine inviting someone to your home for dinner and having them never reply to your invitation. Then, a few months later, your invitee knocks on your door and asks you to help him out by buying popcorn from his son’s Boy Scout troop.
That’d be weird, right?
Welp, when someone subscribes to your email list, and you ignore the invitation to show up in her inbox until you need money for your next campaign, you’re doing the same thing.
You need an email welcome series. It’s a three to five email automated sequence that a subscriber receives after joining your list. These emails introduce the subscriber to your work and mission in a low-pressure way — and dramatically increase long-term engagement.
THE TRUTH ABOUT EMAIL:
We’re all so bombarded by work emails and by businesses asking for our data that we can fall into the trap of thinking, “Nobody really wants more email. I’m bugging people when I send them emails!”
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Nobody is holding your subscribers hostage and forcing them to give away their info, just like nobody is forcing you to give away your email address. I’m willing to bet you’ve done it sometime during the last week. Maybe in exchange for a discount or a free resource or some other special offer. (I gave mine away to several pet insurers in exchange for quotes last weekend.)
When your organization offers valuable content in exchange for an email address, you are serving your site’s visitors. They’re agreeing to receive more content from you. Don’t ignore them or disrespect that.
You need to be emailing your subscribers regularly, but I particularly want to talk about the first emails you send when someone signs up for your list.
People expect to get a welcome email from you. In fact, they’re much more likely to open your welcome email than any other email you send, and those welcome emails increase long-term engagement with your organization.
THE EMAIL WELCOME SERIES PAYOFF:
Here are the exact stats:
74% of subscribers expect an email welcome.
The open rate for welcome emails is around 50%, much higher than other types of emails.
Welcome emails increase long-term engagement by 33%.
Other benefits of sending out a welcome sequence:
A welcome sequence is an intentional avenue for converting subscribers to donors. You are sharing the heart of your organization and mission at the time when the subscriber is most likely to pay attention. Don’t waste this chance!
Email decreases your dependency on social media. You do not own or control your content on social media. In addition, not everyone is on social media, and many people have a very conflicted relationship with it (raising my hand here!). Email is more personal, and people are less distracted in their inboxes and more likely to see your messages.
Email allows you to increase web traffic to your site. When you use email to highlight your regularly updated web content (you are adding new content regularly, right?), you drive traffic there and increase your SEO ranking. Ultimately, that leads to higher rankings in search results, more organic traffic to your site, and more subscribers and donors.
OK, SO WHAT IS AN EMAIL WELCOME SERIES?
An email welcome sequence is a series of emails sent to new email subscribers over the course of a few days. Three emails are the minimum; 5 or even 7 email sequences are also common.
(I suggest you start with 3 or 4. Pay attention to the open rates on each email. If you’re still getting high open rates for the later emails, add another!)
You’ve probably received one of these sequences yourself if you’ve visited an e-commerce site, given an email address in exchange for a coupon, and then started getting emails from that site.
These are automated, which means you write them once. When someone signs up for your email list, it triggers your Email Service Provider (Mailchimp, Constant Contact, ConvertKit, etc.) to start sending the sequence, with little to no monitoring or oversight from you.
Once you’ve got subscribers, you’ll want to start sending out regular email broadcasts to your subscribers to maintain the relationship.
Do people really want more email? I’m swamped!
Me, too! And yet I keep giving away my email address!
YES, email marketing consistently ranks as one of the top performers in the digital marketing sphere. And for nonprofits specifically, donors are clear: email is their communication method of choice when it comes to nonprofits.
YOUR EMAIL WELCOME SERIES: AN OUTLINE
The goal of this 4 email sequence is to introduce the subscriber to your nonprofit and its work.
Your goal is NOT to get a donation. This doesn’t mean you can’t ask for a donation in the last email of the sequence (especially if you’re writing a longer sequence), but the GOAL of the sequence is NOT to raise money.
Your goal is to nurture a relationship, build trust, and share your expertise about your cause in a low-key, informal format. You can choose a CTA for each email that is low-risk and low-cost for the reader, things like “follow us on Facebook” or “watch this 2-minute video from our founder” but save the big pitch for a later email.
Below is a general outline for a four email welcome sequence. If you decide to go for 3 only (totally fine!), decide which pieces are most important and save the rest for other email broadcasts rather than trying to cram everything into 3 emails. Keep your readers’ needs in mind and in higher priority than your own and your org’s. Serve the reader.
Email 1: Sent immediately after a new subscriber sign-up.
Express your gratitude for their interest and welcome them to your community.
Reassure them they’ve made an excellent decision in joining your email list. (“Because of donors like you, we were able to house 348 people in Green Bay, WI in 2020.”)
Let them know what to expect from your welcome series - and from your emails in general. (“Over the next few days, you’ll receive a few short emails to introduce you to our work. After that, we’ll email about once a week with inspiring stories and updates.”)
Offer social proof, such as a 1-sentence testimonial from a donor or recipient of your services.
Get them what they opted in for.
Suggested CTA: “Follow us” with links to relevant social media platforms. All of your emails should include social media links in the footer.
Email 2: Sent one day after Email 1.
This is when you start sharing more details about your nonprofit’s work.
Answer this question every potential donor has: If your organization and its programs disappeared tonight, what would the world regret having lost? (Question courtesy of Tom Ahern)
In other words, speak of your mission and vision with passion, urgency, and clarity. (“Hundreds of children in the tri-state area would go to bed hungry tonight without the generosity of our donors.”)
Tell a short story/anecdote that illustrates the importance of your work. You want to create some emotion in your reader!
Give them something else for free. Surprise them with generosity! (a pdf download; a link to a video excerpt of content that’s normally behind a paywall, etc.)
Suggested CTA: Invite a reply. “Hit reply and let me know what inspired you to join the email list!” Do not let any responses you receive go unanswered.
Email 3: sent a day after Email 2
Remind them of the freebies you sent and reshare links. "Are you enjoying your (link name)? I’d love to know what you think!”
Remind them of your mission/vision from Email 2.
Share specific examples of your impact. Aim to engage your reader emotionally. (Psst… your activities and programs are NOT your impact.)
Suggested CTA: Point them to a link on your website to learn more or to read an inspiring story. (“Donna spent much of the past 3 years unemployed because she couldn’t afford childcare. Check out this profile to find out how her kids’ lives changed because of donors like you!”)
Email 4: Sent 1-2 days after Email 3
Celebrate the generosity of volunteers and donors just like them!
Share a donor and/or volunteer story (or share a quote from a donor/volunteer and link to the full story on your blog).
Share opportunities to get involved and highlight any upcoming events.
Suggested CTA: Add VOLUNTEER and DONATE buttons at the bottom of the email. Do not make a direct ask for money yet. Please make sure you have a system in place to respond when someone fills out a volunteer form!
A final note:
Whether you decide to send 3 emails or 7 for your welcome series, pay attention to the data (it’s built into your ESP for a reason). If you notice your open rate drops dramatically after a particular email in the series, do some tweaking. You may need to strengthen up your subject line on the email not being opened, or you may need to rework the previous email to be more engaging.
Even the most successful email marketers tweak their sequences to maximize results.
Have a question about email welcome series? Get it touch!
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